On a touchline in County Durham, parents were protesting that their son had been left out of the school football team to accommodate a girl.

Changing alone inside, an eight-year-old Steph Houghton was unaware of the fuss about her debut in midfield for South Hetton Primary School, but she soon settled all arguments.

Five minutes into the match, any dissent about the only girl on the pitch was silenced when Sunderland fan Houghton’s first touch was a nifty turn in the box and her second flew into the top corner.

For good measure, she scored a second goal later and her team won. If the plot sounds familiar, you probably saw it at the flicks 30-odd years ago. Eat your heart out, John Gordon Sinclair. Gregory’s Girl is a Mackem.

“I’m so glad I did that. I might not be where I am today if I had not gone out there and played with the boys,” said Houghton, now 26. “They may have been faster and stronger, but I wanted to show them I could play.

“You do have to smile about it now – how many of those lads realised their team-mate would go on to captain England and score the winner against Brazil at Wembley in the Olympics?

“But I was just a wide-eyed and innocent little girl who only wanted to play football.”

“He knew all about our 100 per cent record in the World Cup qualifying campaign, and he was just a normal, down-to-earth person who loves football at every level.”

When Houghton went to watch the NFL at Wembley last week, along one of the corridors she came across a large photo of herself in Team GB colours, which brought back memories of her winner against Brazil.

“I’m rubbish at celebrating – always have been,” said Houghton, who crowned her first season as Manchester City captain by winning the ­Continental Cup final against Arsenal last month.

(Image: Ben Hoskins - The FA)

“When I scored at Wembley in front of all my family and friends, who had travelled down from the North-East, I was like a headless chicken.

“I just remember ending up on the floor, the noise and jumping over the barrier to give my mam and dad a hug afterwards.

“It was only after the excitement had calmed down that what I’d done sank in. Not many people get the chance to score the winner against Brazil at Wembley.”

If Sunday’s encore is anything like as ­memorable, women’s football at Wembley may no longer be an exercise in public curiosity.

England are expected to wear pink laces or ribbons to support Breast Cancer Care on the day, so let’s hear it for the ­sisterhood. Wembley will look pretty in pink.